CF memory cards

harrygraham · 08-04-2001, 12:23 AM

I would like to know if reading Compact Flash memory cards is possible with Linux. Specifically, if I buy a digital camera, will I have to get Windows 98 to make it work, or can I get a device like a CF card reader and upload files without having to use the camera's connection and software? Or better still, can Linux read a CF card through a digicam's USB or serial connection?

I know that the devices for reading and writing are built into the compact flash cards already, but I'm not sure if drivers are necessary as well. I'm a little confused about what the hurdle is for using digicams with Linux. It sure bugs me to see all those digital cameras, with system requirements listing only Windows and Mac OS's on the box.

I apologize if this question is a little off-topic,

Harry

mcleodnine · 08-04-2001, 01:09 AM

I was looking for the same info this week. I saw a linux distro done up on a CF card in a PCMCIA adapter, but I don't recall where.

mcleodnine · 08-04-2001, 02:45 AM

Compact Flash cards should work in a PCMCIA adapter, although I am still trying to source out whether it is an ATA or SCSI device.

From my limited search, it appears that the ATA guru Andre Hedrick had this to say. Keep in mind he was still pretty p*ssed about the whole CPRM fiasco. (Who isn't?)

Quote:

On Thu, 1 Mar 2001, Tim Walberg wrote:

> Just wondering whether anyone has successfully gotten
> either a PCMCIA SmartMedia Adapter (specifically the
> Viking Components one) or a FlashPath floppy SmartMedia
> adapter working under 2.4.x. I've got both, and haven't
> gotten either working under either 2.2.x or 2.4.x, but
> I haven't had the time to work real hard at it either,
> so I'm hoping someone can give me some pointers...

That is going to be a SDA device and will have another form of content
protection like CPRM and Linux will not support that superset of features
at this time or in the future. SMA's are on the hit list for music by the
SDMI. If you want to use it as as standard ATA device cool, but the
0xD{0123} opt-codes are not public yet and fall under CFA.

Because it does not use a public spec and I can not release the private
one.....well you get the point.

Regards,

Andre Hedrick
Linux ATA Development

You can find the original thread over at http://uwsg.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/k...03.0/0192.html

In short - someone else's copyright fears have more market value than yours or my need to use re-writatble media.

Possibly on the same note, smartdisk.com has NOTHING Linux related on their web site now. A far cry from their press release of June 2000 claiming Linux (well RedHat) support.

harrygraham · 08-04-2001, 07:16 AM

I see. So the entertainment industry is probably behind this. I was thinking along these lines as well, but wasn't sure. Thanks for the replies.

Harry

toothfish · 08-14-2002, 01:56 AM

okay since upgrading to slackware 8.1 on my laptop i can't seem to mount my pcmcia compactflash reader any more. it seemed to work fine under slack 8.0 with

mount /dev/hdc1 /mnt/cf

but the same thing under 8.1 gives

mount: /dev/hdc1: unknown device

any ideas?

thanks
paul

merana · 08-14-2002, 06:02 PM

Ohmigawd... I might actually be able to post something useful...

K. Everyone hold your breath...

I went through this already with my Dell Latitude 810 and a PCMCIA CF adapter (or should I say PC-CARD Compact Flash Adapter).

My scenario was to install RedHat 7.3 on my notebook and then try to get as equal functionality with it as I had with windows. The Compact Flash issue came up while I was taking a Linux Security Course with Learning Tree in Rockville, MD.

I found SOME links on how to do this..

NOW... If you're using a USB flash card reader it will mount differently.. The key thing is to go into you /var/log/ and look at the boot log file. I noticed that when my notebook boots up and the flash card is inserted that it showed it at /dev/hdc. Sooo from there I just interpolated the following mounting line for fstab:

/dev/hdc1 /mnt/fc vfat nosuid,nodev,noauto,owner,fat=16 0 0

And Voila.... It worked...

As I said watch for new storage devices and that will be the key.

toothfish · 08-14-2002, 06:23 PM

well now this is weird. for some reason it mounts fine with

mount /dev/hde1 /mnt/cf

i just figured this out about half an hour ago, and i'm not sure why it's different from my previous install.

huh.

thanks for the suggestion about the boot log though. that is/will be useful, i'm sure.

cheers
p

merana · 08-15-2002, 04:26 AM

Some additional observations.

I would venture the supposition that since you did an upgrade to the notebook that when Kudzu started tot enumerate the devices OR the install process begins to search out system devices that the hierarchy of identification shifted.

This means that you could have have OTHER devices plugged in that were allocated to the /dev/hdc pointer. I'd check fstab to see what it's pointed to if anything.

My biggest hurdle in the install process was my Linux N00bieness... I kept trying to mount /dev/hdc instead of /dev/hdc1. THEN I realized that you can't mount the main device but sub-devices underneath.... (DOH)

Also someone mentioned a Linux Distro on a PCMCIA flash card. This is possible through the use of a boot disk configured with GRUB. Then when you boot you just point it to the device id for the PCMCIA CF card or MiniDrive and it should load. Heck If the kernel is done right you could even do this from one of those USB file storage keydongle thingies... You should be able to fit a tight kernel and /bin /sbin into 128 or 256MB....